Character-Driven Fantasy Stories

September 20, 2015
by
Leslie Anderson

I love character-driven stories. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy an engaging, intriguing plot, but to be one of my favorite books, the characters have to be so dynamic, funny, and/or loveable that I’d happily watch them buy groceries. These are the books that I come back to every few years, because no matter how familiar I am with the story, the characters feel like old friends.

These are also the books that inspired me to write. If I can create characters that are half as funny as David Edding’s Silk, charmingly eccentric as Barbara Hambly’s Antryg, or as genuine as Andrew Smith’s Austin, I’ll consider myself lucky.

Unfortunately, I feel like some of my favorite books don’t quite have the recognition they deserve. For any of you lovers of character-driven fantasy books, I’m compiling a list of my favorites. To make this list, it has to be the sort of book, where, already knowing how the plot, relationships, and quests will end, I read and re-read just for the joy of watching the characters.

As I write articles, I’ll add them here, to my ongoing list of favorite character-driven books, video games, and series.

Articles that are part of the Character-Driven Fantasy Stories collection:

How DIY Should You Go?
In my last sprint article, I mentioned having multiple projects is demotivating because each project competes for your time. Whether you’re an indie author or traditionally published, writing a book is already many projects.
Read on

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
Despite being a relatively new book, I might be one of the last fantasy nerds to read The Name of the Wind. I’ve heard plenty of hype, but also enough grousing that I went into the book with roughly no expectations.
Read on